At the 2016 National Food Hub Conference – March 20-April 1 in Atlanta – you’ll meet the business developers, investors, and community leaders making it happen. It’s the can’t-miss meet-up of hundreds of private and public partners involved in building new supply chain links from farm to table.
Learn the nuts, bolts, and trajectory of the new food economy through up-close tours and trainings, deep-dive plenaries, and 35 breakout sessions.
Growing Food Connections is excited to announce the addition of 5 free publications to the Exploring Stories of Innovation series, a series of short articles that explore how local governments from across the United States are strengthening their community’s food system through planning and policy. These include:
Beginning in 2012, Growing Food Connections (GFC) conducted a national scan and identified 299 local governments across the United States that are developing and implementing a range of innovative plans, public programs, regulations, laws, financial investments and other policies to strengthen the food system. GFC conducted exploratory telephone interviews with 20 of these local governments. This series highlights some of the unique planning and policy strategies used by some of these urban and rural local governments to enhance community food security while ensuring sustainable and economically viable agriculture and food production. The first four articles in the series featured:
For more information and to download these free publications, visit http://growingfoodconnections.org/research/communities-of-innovation/.
Growing Food Connections is supported by Agriculture and Food Research initiative Competitive Grant no. 2012-68004-19894 from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture.
Invest Health is a new initiative that brings together diverse leaders from mid-sized U.S. cities across the nation to develop new strategies for increasing and leveraging private and public investments to accelerate improvements in neighborhoods facing the biggest barriers to better health. The program is a collaboration between the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and The Reinvestment Fund.
This initiative was developed to provide an opportunity for mid-sized cities to transform the way local leaders work together to create solution-driven and diverse partnerships. These partnerships will emphasize making changes in low-income neighborhoods to improve resident health and well-being. These changes can focus on increasing access to quality jobs, affordable housing, and nutritious food, and reducing crime rates and environmental hazards.
For more information on this funding opportunity, visit http://www.investhealth.org/#apply. Letters of Intent are due by January 29, 2016 at 5pm EST.
American Farmland Trust (AFT) seeks an energetic self-starter to coordinate extension and outreach to help local governments build capacity to plan for food and agriculture and develop public policies to strengthen community food systems.
AFT is the nation’s leading national organization dedicated to protecting farmland, promoting sound stewardship and keeping farmers on the land. The Community Outreach Coordinator will support AFT’s partnership in a USDA-funded integrated research, education and extension project called Growing Food Connections (GFC). The Coordinator’s primary responsibilities will be to coordinate and deliver training and technical assistance to eight counties across the United States.
The ideal candidate will have a background in land use or community planning, sustainable agriculture, food systems and public policy at the local government level. S/he will have a passion for community engagement, excellent listening, communication and interpersonal skills, experience working with diverse populations, and demonstrated ability to work both independently and collaboratively as part of closely knit team. Strong computer skills and an ability to coordinate multiple people, partners and deliverables is essential.
The Coordinator will report directly to AFT’s Assistant Vice President of Programs and work closely with other project staff within AFT and with GFC partner organizations. The position is full time and based out of AFT’s Northampton, Mass. Office. Extensive travel is required.
For more information and details on how to apply, click here.
The Worcester Food Policy Council (WFPC) is comprised of community organizations and stakeholders who align with the Council mission to “engage diverse partners to foster a healthy and just food system” for Worcester. Members of the Council work together collaboratively to: advocate for policies and systems changes to improve our food system; educate our community and policy makers on food systems issues that impact our communities; eliminate inequity as it relates to food access; collaborate to effect a cultural change towards healthy eating; and celebrate our assets, actions and accomplishments. This full-time position is funded by the Worcester County Food Bank and reports to the Director of Advocacy at the Food Bank.
For more information: http://worcesterfoodandactiveliving.org/jobsinternships/
The Detroit Food Policy Council is seeking a Program Manager to plan and implement the Council’s research and policy activities. This is a full time salaried position with flexible scheduling to accommodate required evening and weekend work. The full job description is below. To apply please send cover letter, resume, three references and a writing sample electronically to: info@detroitfoodpc.org with DFPC Program Manager Application in the subject line or via mail to: Detroit Food Policy Council, Attention: Hiring Manager, 1420 Washington Blvd., Ste. 230, Detroit, MI 48226. Only potential interviewees will be contacted. No phone calls please.
Detroit Food Policy Council Research and Policy Program Manager
The Detroit Food Policy Council is seeking a Program Manager to plan and implement the Council’s research and policy activities. This is a full time salaried position with flexible scheduling to accommodate required evening and weekend work.
Area of Focus: Food Systems Research and Policy, Land Use, Urban Agriculture, Economic and Community Development
Organizational Description: The Detroit Food Policy Council (DFPC) is an advisory, monitoring and implementation body that is committed to nurturing the development and maintenance of a food-secure City of Detroit in which all of its residents are hunger-free, healthy and benefit economically from the food system that impacts their lives.
Position Summary: The Research and Policy Manager of the DFPC reports to the DFPC Executive Director works in partnership with the Council to plan and implement the Council’s research and policy activities.
Compensation: This is a full time position with flexible scheduling to accommodate required evening and weekend work. This is a salaried position based on an average of 40 hours a week; benefits include paid holidays and vacation and an allowance towards reimbursement of health insurance costs.
Qualifications: The successful candidate will be familiar with land use, economic development and policy related to urban food systems. Candidates with familiarity with Detroit’s political, social and economic environment are preferred. S/he will possess excellent research, analysis, written and communications skills. S/he will have demonstrated leadership skills, be self-motivated and have the ability to work with a diverse array of partners including residents, neighborhood and community groups, research and policy experts and government officials. Bachelor’s degree in urban planning, public policy, economics or related field and five years professional experience.
Additional Desired Experience and Skills:
Duties and Responsibilities:
Application Process
Please send cover letter, resume, three references and a writing sample electronically to: info@detroitfoodpc.org with DFPC Program Manager Application in the subject line or via mail to: Detroit Food Policy Council, Attention: Hiring Manager, 1420 Washington Blvd., Ste 230, Detroit, MI 48226. Only potential interviewees will be contacted. No phone calls please.
For more information about the Detroit Food Policy Council, please visit: www.detroitfoodpc.org
The Detroit Food Policy Council is an Equal Opportunity Employer.
APA’s current PAS (Planning Advisory Service) Memo focuses on how planners can conduct or support a community in a community food system assessment. A community food system assessment provides a comprehensive tool to identify the assets and barriers for a community’s food system. Conducted at the neighborhood, city, or even regional level, this assessment tool offers a systems approach that provides planners and the community ways to identify issues and solutions, engage the community, and inform policy-making. The Community Food System Assessments (Nov/Dec 2015) Memo, by Kara Martin and Tammy Morales, includes examples of assessments, resources, and a case study on Buffalo, New York to demonstrate how various communities have used this tool.
The Memo is just one of APA’s many resources focused on food system planning. The 2008 PAS Report, Planners Guide to Community and Regional Food Planning (PAS 554), by Samina Raja, Branden Born and Jessica Kozlowski Russell, is particularly helpful for understanding how planners play a role in the food environment. The policy report, Planning for Food Access and Community-Based Food Systems: A National Scan and Evaluation of Local Comprehensive and Sustainability Plans by Kimberley Hodgson (2012), is useful for communities incorporating food access into their comprehensive plans or sustainability plans. Check out these and other APA’s food system publications that can help you and your community in taking steps to building a healthy, equitable food system.
There is a vacancy at the City Planning Commission for the Community Health Planning Assignment in the City Planner 3 specification. This innovative position bridges public health and planning and as such is also a part of the Get Healthy Philly team. Applications are accepted through 12/25. The assignment description is just below and the full specification (and application) is linked here: https://phila.peopleadmin.com/postings/26052
COMMUNITY HEALTH PLANNING ASSIGNMENT
Integrates public health considerations into planning policy and project implementation; coordinates, conducts and analyses Health Impact Assessments (HIA) and makes recommendations for District Plans and other City Planning Commission adopted and accepted plans; communicates the health impacts of planning decisions to stakeholders; presents findings and recommendations at meetings; collaborates with a variety of city agencies and external partners to implement recommendations, including bicycle and pedestrian safety interventions and zoning re-mappings to improve access to health-supportive goods, services, and infrastructure; performs project management duties; manages HIA process for proposed development projects as required; convenes stakeholders to screen and scope each HIA.
Performs Geographic Information System (GIS) mapping and analysis; develops and utilizes spatial analysis tools designed to assist in identifying opportunities to improve health; develops proposals and reports; oversees the work of student interns; performs analysis as necessary on factors affecting fresh-food access, active transportation, and other health issues; develops new tools to evaluate the health impacts of major projects to incorporate health considerations into the daily activities of the City Planning Commission; develops educational materials for presentation to the public including the Citizens Planning Institute.
Represents Philadelphia City Planning Commission at events relevant to healthy planning goals; serves as a technical resource to community groups; solicits information from the community to establish health-related priorities; considers community input in planning process; engages design and development communities to build capacity and support for projects that support the healthy built-environment goals of the City Planning Commission and the Department of Public Health.
MINIMUM ACCEPTABLE TRAINING AND EXPERIENCE (The following statement represents the minimum training and experience standards which will be used to admit or reject applicants for tests. Applications submitted by candidates for this class will be reviewed based on training and experience requirements as approved on 12/13.)
EDUCATION: Completion of a bachelor’s degree program at an accredited college or university in a field related to city planning*
GENERAL EXPERIENCE: Two years of technical city planning experience in the area of assignment.
SPECIFIC EXPERIENCE: One year of technical city planning experience at the full performance level in the area of assignment.
Image Source: City Region Food Systems
City Region Food Systems (CRFS) is an international initiative that was established by a range of international organizations* to improve rural-urban connectivity in sustainable food systems work.
City region food systems encompass the complex network of actors, processes and relationships to do with food production, processing, marketing, and consumption that exist in a given geographical region that includes a more or less concentrated urban centre and its surrounding peri- urban and rural hinterland; a regional landscape across which flows of people, goods and ecosystem services are managed.
The term ‘City region’ refers not only to megacities and the immediate, proximate rural and agricultural areas surrounding them, but also to small and medium-sized towns that can serve to link the more remote small-scale producers and their agricultural value chains to urban centers and markets in developing countries.
A city region food system approach recognizes that there is great diversity between contexts, the nature of urbanization, sizes of urban centre (from small and intermediate towns to megacities), types of food systems, and nature of ties with the surrounding countryside and rural populations.
Join the Call for Global Action!
The strengthening of city regional food systems can play a key role in helping to feed an increasingly urbanized world in ways that are sustainable, resilient, fair and healthy and that help to create the Future We Want. Human settlements from villages and small towns to cities are expanding. The importance of territorial or landscape approaches to food systems development is increasingly recognized, but city regions, and the rural urban linkages that they represent, are not yet prominent in international dialogue on the future of food and nutrition security. A concerted effort is therefore required to enable these approaches to help shape the future of our food security and the healthy rural urban linkages upon which future well-being depends. This joint effort will require co-operation between subnational and local authorities associations, civil society and producer organizations in both rural agriculture-based and urban communities, the private sector, international organizations and the donor community. This multi-sector and multi-stakeholder effort will also need to collaborate with all levels of government, integrating economic, ecological, territorial and rights-based approaches.
Join the Call for Global Action for stakeholders across the world to engage in a concerted global effort in order to:
1. Increase awareness of the value and importance of CRFS
2. Develop and exchange knowledge on how to protect, support and further develop CRFS
3. Catalyze further action on the ground
Sign-up to today, by filling out the form on this webpage: http://cityregionfoodsystems.org/get-involved/.
For more information about CRFS, visit http://cityregionfoodsystems.org/.
*This collaboration was initiated with the support of FAO Food for cities initiative, Global Food Security Cluster/Urban Working Group, Habitat International Coalition (HIC), ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability, ILO, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), International Urban Food Network (IUFN), International network of Resource Centres on Urban Agriculture and Food security (RUAF), UN-Habitat, United Nations Capital Development (UNCDF), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), World Food Programme (WFP) and Prince of Wales’ International Sustainability Unit (ISU).
APA FOOD 